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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25094881">Handle With...</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/camichats/pseuds/camichats'>camichats</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bucky Barnes &amp; Winter Soldier are Different Personalities, First Dates, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Mild Sexual Content</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 05:40:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,314</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25094881</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/camichats/pseuds/camichats</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony wanted to slap a sign on Winter that said 'handle with care' because everyone kept acting like he was invincible, and it was stressing him out.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Winter Soldier/Tony Stark</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>636</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>StarkBucksBingo2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Handle With...</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For StarkBucks bingo: B1-Handle With Care</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Tony was pretty sure that there should be a sign hovering around Winter wherever he walked that said 'Handle With Care'. When he shared that opinion with Clint, Clint had looked at him like he was crazy. Pretty bold coming from the guy that used to be a carnie for a living, but whatever. Tony wasn't stupid, okay? He knew that Winter was a trained assassin, more than capable of taking care of himself. But he was so freaking adorable! It wasn't a childlike innocence that he had, more like... well, like he'd been created to be an assassin and never had a chance to live out in the world like a normal person. It meant that he was a grown ass adult who was a little too gullible. Hence the sign that Tony thought he should have. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Handle With Care. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It's what Winter deserved: to be handled with care. Unfortunately, no one else on the team seemed to agree with Tony on this. Their state of mind tended to be that he was more dangerous than all of them-- except for </span>
  <em>
    <span>maybe</span>
  </em>
  <span> Natasha-- and therefore he was fine. Tony tried to explain that getting treated like a weapon didn't equal not having emotions, but that didn't have the desired effect either. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Are you feeling alright?" Winter asked, expression blank as he looked at Tony. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tony hadn't realized that he was there and jumped in surprise. He'd been so busy glaring at Natasha's widow bites as he worked on fixing them that he hadn't even noticed he was there. "Fucking hell, Snowflake. How long have you been there?" </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Winter blinked. "Three and a half minutes." </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Ah. Did you need something?" </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"No. Are you feeling alright?" he repeated. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Yeah, I'm fine. Why?" </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"You seemed upset heading back from the mission." </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Oh yeah. He'd been pissed off because Winter had been helping someone and nearly gotten blown up. When Tony said that he should've had back up, everyone insisted that if Winter had needed it, he would've asked for it. "I was getting a little pissy, but don't worry about it." </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Winter continued to look at him for a moment, then he turned and started to leave. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Hey Winter!" Tony called, and he paused in front of the doorway. "You hungry?" he asked. He hadn't meant to say that. Whelp. He had to follow through now. "How do you feel about Chinese food? I'm having a craving, and it's always depressing to eat alone." He expected for Winter to say that he wasn't hungry and keep walking, but he turned back to look at Tony. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Sure." </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tony grinned at him. "Awesome. Let me just-" he closed up the Widow Bite so it wouldn't get any dust in it, then stood up. </span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>"Is this a date?" Winter asked about halfway through their meal, chopsticks carefully arranged in his right hand. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Uh, if it would make you uncomfortable, no, of course not, I would never dream of dating you. If it doesn't make you want to run out of here screaming, then yeah, I was kinda hoping it would be." Tony would have to be dead not to see how gorgeous Winter was. And maybe he hadn't asked him to dinner with a date firmly in mind, but he hadn't had much of anything in mind when he asked Winter to dinner. Harley referred to it as 'dumb bitch syndrome' any time he caught wind of Tony making decisions like this, but he hadn't really realized that he wanted to date Winter until he got asked about it. Physically, it was of course a </span>
  <em>
    <span>hell yes</span>
  </em>
  <span> Tony wanted to date him. Who wouldn't? Man was built like a fucking tank, and it was hot as hell. For the better, more reasonable reasons to date someone, Tony had those too, he just hadn't thought of them in those terms. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Winter could be fierce. They all knew that, but he could be so gentle when he tried. Like right now, sitting across from Tony and making absolutely certain that he wouldn't splinter his chopsticks. That wasn't because Winter cared what he ate with, but he didn't like scaring other people. Tony gave everyone on the team a credit card-- so far only Clint had gone hog wild enough to earn himself a limit-- and when he checked Winter's, it was mostly eating out with numbers far higher than even a super soldier could have wracked up at a restaurant. Tipping that much, just because he could. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Plus Winter seemed to actually listen when Tony talked, and that was a surprisingly hard quality to find in people. People listened to </span>
  <em>
    <span>most</span>
  </em>
  <span> of what he said, but they tended to tune out when he didn't stop. Winter was a hard person to read, but he also didn't put up with shit that annoyed him, so the fact that he stuck around when Tony started rambling and didn't leave until he was done said something. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Dating you would be-" Tony cleared his throat "-I mean, if you wanted, I think we'd have a pretty good time. Maybe you'd finally admit what your favorite color was." </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Winter looked him right in the eye and said, "Purple." </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"If you already knew, why didn't you tell me the last twenty times I asked?" Tony hired other people to wrap presents for him, but he did try to color code to show that he cared. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Clint." </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Ah. Okay, that's fair. Is it any shade of purple?" </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Not those shoes he has," Winter said with a slight twist to his mouth, and Tony laughed because he knew exactly which shoes of Clint's that Winter was talking about. Clint had special ordered those. Tony hadn't checked, but there was no way someone had put those out on a shelf and thought it was fine. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"So this is a date, right?" Tony asked, needing to double check. Sometimes he thought someone was being upfront with him and then he ended up getting completely blindsided the next day. "Cause I said the thing about your favorite color and you answered, but maybe you were relieved to finally be able to tell someone since Clint has tried to call a monopoly on purple." </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Date," Winter said with a small nod. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tony beamed. "Awesome. Although I feel like I should warn you that dating me isn't exactly a cake walk." </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"What's a cake walk?" </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"You know, I'm not entirely sure. I think a cake walk is supposed to mean that it's easy." </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Winter blinked at him. "You're... warning me off dating you. After I said yes." </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"I'm not 'warning you off', more like I'm reminding you that I don't get easier to deal with if we start dating. I don't change for people." </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Neither do I." </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"That's different, you're already perfect." </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Winter cocked his head. "You think I'm perfect?" </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"If you want compliments, you can just ask for them," Tony said with a smirk. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"You'll be disappointed if that's how you think of me," Winter said. He didn't visibly droop because-- like Natasha-- he was too well trained to let himself have an obvious tell like that in public, but it was pretty much the exact opposite reaction that Tony had been going for. He wanted for Winter to be charmed. Or at least amused by him. Not getting sad because he thought Tony had unrealistic expectations. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"It's a figure of speech. I know you're not perfect by the exact definition, but I like everything about you that I know, and that's pretty damn perfect. I'm a very picky person." </span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>Winter was panting harshly in his ear, curling his fingers in Tony's hair. "Harder," he begged, and Tony was helpless to do anything but give it to him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tony mentally changed the sign for Winter in his head from 'Handle With Care' to 'Handle With Care Unless Asked Otherwise'. "Whatever you say, babe." </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
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